Sony Xperia S vs Samsung Galaxy S III – Flagship Battle

In the good old days, Sony Ericsson was a name well embedded into anybody’s mind thanks to the overwhelming popularity of devices such as the K800 and W810 mobile phones, but a lot has happened to the industry since those times. The major change that has come across the industry is the emergence of the smartphone class, or how others say: the one class to rule them all. With this new smartphone breed, a couple of major mobile operating systems have risen to staggering heights, and a couple of old timers have all but completely disappeared. We are of course talking of the modern day trend setters: Android, iOS, and even Windows Phone, while the nearly deceased ones are Symbian, Blackberry OS and of course Windows Mobile.

Thanks to these new operating systems, manufacturers have had numerous opportunities to make devices capable of handling even the most demanding tasks, and from those only a couple have risen so far into users preferences as the Sony Xperia S and the Galaxy S III. The Sony Xperia S is the first flagship to arise after the Ericsson deal and at its release it managed to impress quite a lot of people even if it didn’t pack the latest hardware. The other device is the Galaxy S III and I think it doesn’t need any presentation as it has been one of the most hotly anticipated devices in the last months.

The following lines will server a way of telling which of the devices is best suited for you, as the difference in time and hardware between the two flagships will surely make their duel a bit unfair. With this in mind please take a look at the image below, which is a side by side comparison of specs and read the lines below to find out if the abstract data really reflects the reality.

From here on we will be commenting upon the pros of each device in five major areas:

Processor Power

Display Quality

Camera Performance

Operating System Speed

Battery Life

Processor Power:

This chapter is all but won by the Galaxy S III even before reading the spec sheets, as the device is still to arrive on the shelves. Nevertheless, the Sony Xperia S is powered by a dual core processor made by Qualcomm, and it can be found by its name: Qualcomm MSM8260 Snapdragon. This dual core chipset runs at 1.5 GHz and it can be found on another former flagship, the HTC Sensation XE. Apart from the dual core processors, this chip also contains the Adreno 220 GPU.

On the other hand, the Samsung Galaxy S III comes with a quad core processor, the Exynos 4212 Quad which runs at 1.4 GHz. The architecture of this processor is Cortex A9 while the one on the Xperia S is still Cortex A7. You could say that the S III packs twice the power of the Xperia S. It also pack the dual core Mali-400MP GPU which so far seems to be the most powerful GPu on a smartphone.

Display Quality:

This is a field where the battle will be intense as both smartphones pack state of the art screens.

The Xperia S comes with a 4.3 inches wide 720 x 1280 pixels resolution display, otherwise known as HD screen. Thanks to its smaller size and classic RGB matrix it boasts the impressive ~342 ppi pixel density. The screen is of the LCD variety and uses the Bravia tech.

The Galaxy S III comes with a 4.8 inches wide screen of the same HD resolution, only this time the unit is a Super AMOLED one. This means that its blacks are as deep as they can get but it does have one major flaw: it uses the PenTile matrix. Nevertheless the screen boasts a 306 ppi pixel density but in reality it only has 2/3 of that value.

If you want a screen that will show vivid colors and will be excellent in direct sunlight the Galaxy S III is the winner here, but if you want color accuracy and full resolution you should go with the Xperia S.

Camera Performance:

This is a battlefield where the older device is surely still the top dog.

The Xperia S features a top of the range 12 MP camera equipped with a backside illuminated Exmor R sensor, the same one used in smaller compact digital cameras.

The Galaxy S III comes with a now standard 8 MP camera, a good unit, but it can’t match the performance of the Exmor sensor even with its software tricks.

On the front side cameras, the Galaxy S III is the clear winner as it features a 2 MP camera while the Xperia S only has a 1.3 MP unit. In the response time the S III is also the winner as it takes fewer seconds for it to take a snapshot and it can also take them while capturing a movie.

Operating System Speed:

This is a chapter where there is little room for comparison as the Galaxy S III is running on the latest Android 4.0.4 ICS while its Xperia S competitor is still running the aging Android 2.3 Gingerbread. Until the Xperia S gets its ICS update the Galaxy S II and almost any other newer top tier smartphone is the clear winner.

As far as the custom user interfaces, the one used on the Xperia S looks stunningly beautiful while the one of the S III is still the classic TouchWiz.

In fluency terms, both devices are fast and feel snappy under day to day use, but there is a noticeable difference in favor of the Galaxy S III.

Battery Life:

This is again an area where the newer smartphone will take the lead.

The Galaxy S III is not only more power efficient thanks to its improved architecture and screen model, but it also packs a much bigger 2100 mAh battery. This should make the smartphone last extremely long during calls, and it should also make it a good performer in all the other areas.

On the other hand, the Xperia S comes with a more modest 1750 mAh, and it can’t offer the same standby or talk times as its competitor.

All in all it certainly looks like the Galaxy S III is the smartphone of choice for any newcomer in the Android world, but on the other hand, the pricing and probably the availability of the Xperia S will tilt the balance a little in its favor. Not all people need quad core processors on their smartphones, and a few will surely trade the Super AMOLED screen to the LCD unit found on the Xperia S, not to mention the camera.

Frankly, these two devices couldn’t be more different, and it is hard to choose a winner based on specs alone, but if you ask us you should probably pick the Galaxy S III as it has better software support and it will surely last longer than the Xperia flagship.